


The Joys of Communication

by LiveLoveLaugh



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/M, Lack of Communication, M/M, Multi, Polyamory, Pre-Poly, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-01
Updated: 2015-06-21
Packaged: 2018-03-26 17:09:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,707
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3858376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LiveLoveLaugh/pseuds/LiveLoveLaugh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ever since Kaidan Alenko rejoined the Normandy, things have been tense between him and Maria Shepard. After each of their fights, they turn to James Vega to help them sort out their thoughts and feelings and to cheer them up a bit. When James gets tired of being the middle man, he decides to take matters in his own hands and make them sit down and talk like the adults they claim to be. Things don't turn out as he originally planned and that's not necessarily a bad thing...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Therapy Session Number One

Another argument. Ever since Kaidan came back to the Normandy, that’s all he and Shepard seemed to do. James Vega sighed and went back to his workstation. He might as well try to get some work done before they called on him, separately of course, to vent about what happened.

That seemed to be the routine as of late. They would try to talk, one or both of them would say something they didn’t truly mean which would lead to fighting, they’d storm away to their respective areas of the ship, and then they’d call on James to talk about what happened. At first, he didn’t mind the extra conversation. It gave him something to do in his off hours and he got to know two of the most closed off people on the ship. Now, however, his patience with the pair was starting to run thin.

For the past week, their conversations were going around in circles. Kaidan was upset because he really wanted to talk to Shepard and try to set things straight, but the words would never come out right. He wants to let her know that yes, he does still have some trust issues but he wants to work through them with her. Shepard on the other hand is upset because Kaidan doesn’t trust her like he used to. She wants to let him know that she’s not upset with  _him_  because of that, she’s upset at the  _circumstances_. She wants their old friendship back and she’s willing to do anything to get it back. Like Kaidan though, the words never seem to come out just right.

They both want the exact same thing but since their communication is screwed to hell, they don’t know that. James on the other hand does. He has spent the last week frustrated beyond belief at the two supposed adults. Here were two of the most intelligent, strong willed, caring, stubborn, beautiful, people he knew and they couldn’t even talk to each other anymore without dissolving into a mess of bad communication and misplaced anger. It was driving him up the wall!

Sure enough, five minutes after Cortez informed him of the fight, the first request for a “therapy session” as he now called it, came in. As expected, it was from Kaidan. He was always the first to come to him after a fight. Vega sent off a quick reply, put away his tools, and headed up to the starboard observation lounge.

“Another fight?” James said taking a seat on the couch, staring up at the man standing next to the window.

“How do you always seem to know?”

“It’s a small ship,” said James with a shrug. “Word gets around.”

“So what you’re saying is, Cortez told you?” Kaidan said, the corner of his mouth tilting up into that small, smug, but somehow still cute as hell smirk that James liked so much.

“Yep. So tell me, what happened this time?” Kaidan leaned back against the large window and folded his arms across his chest.

“I just-- I can’t even ask her a simple question anymore! She questions every single thing I say and do. It’s like she’s testing me and I keep failing because I don’t know I’m being tested.”

“You mean she’s acting the exact same way you did back on Mars?” James said looking Kaidan straight in the eye. The grimace on Kaidan’s face told him that his point had sunk in.

“OK, maybe you have a point.” Kaidan sighed and took a seat next to James on the couch. “Please tell me I wasn’t that bad.”

“Sorry Major. You were worse, by far.”

“Shit.” Kaidan leaned back on the couch and stared off into the distance. James knew this was the part of the “therapy session” where Kaidan would have an entire conversation with himself in his head and, depending on his facial expressions, he’d come to the conclusion to (once again) try to talk to Shepard. “If I could just get her alone for more than five minutes, maybe then I could talk to her without making a complete ass of myself.”

“That actually doesn’t sound like a half bad idea.”

“Then again,” Kaidan continued as if he didn’t hear James, “she would probably assume I was up to something and that would lead to yet another fight.”

“And… never mind.” James sighed, shaking his head slightly. He could never really understand how this man, this Major in the Alliance navy and one of the smartest people he knew, wasn’t able to articulate that he missed his friend. “There’s your problem Kaidan. You’re overthinking this whole thing. You both miss each other. Just sit down and talk like adults.”

“I don’t know if it’s gonna be that simple.” The look that crossed Kaidan’s face made James’s heart ache. He hated seeing both Shepard and Kaidan like this and he knew if something didn’t happen soon, they would lose each other for good.


	2. Therapy Session Number Two

Twenty minutes after his therapy session with Kaidan, James had settled back down in the cargo hold and was working on a weapon mod for Shepard. It was one of his own design and he was quite proud of it. It was a module designed to help reduce the cooldown period and increase the power of her biotic attacks without putting too much strain on her implant. She really didn’t need the power boost, being the third most powerful human biotic behind Jack and Kaidan, but he knew she’d love it. He’d gotten Liara and Tali to help him work out the tech heavy side of things so he was pretty sure it would work perfectly for her. Some tests would need to be done before she used it in the field though.

Lost in his own thoughts, he didn’t sense Shepard creeping up behind him. It had become a running thing between them. If anyone asked, they’d say it was “stealth training.” In reality, they just got a kick out of scaring the shit out of each other. The one rule they had was Shepard was not allowed to use her tactical cloak (enhanced by both Kasumi Goto and Tali). James felt it gave her an unfair advantage. Shepard felt that it actually leveled the playing field because, for a big dude, James was surprisingly quiet when he wanted to be. After a long, drawn out fight that ended with them both covered in ketchup, mustard, and a little bit of soy sauce (don’t ask), Shepard relented and agreed not to use the cloak. Once Shepard was right next to his ear, she decided to make her presence known.

“Hi James!” Shepard shouted into his ear. She lept back just in time to miss his flying elbow.

“¡SANTA MADRE DE DIOS, MARIA! ¿Qué coño?” James was so wrapped up in his own thoughts that he had no idea she was anywhere near him. Normally, she’d never be able get that close without him noticing. Shepard was laughing her ass off at his extreme reaction. She had never been able to make him scream that loud before and she was quite proud of herself for making him a temporary soprano.

“Holy shit! I didn’t know your voice got that high,” Shepard choked out between bouts of laughter. “I know I got you good too because you used my real name.”

“Chingate,” James said, trying hard not to smile but failing miserably. “What exactly do you want Lola? I’m sure you didn’t come down here just to scare the living daylights out of me.”

“Nah, I didn’t. I actually came to talk about… A thing. Making you scream like a teenage girl in a slasher flick was a nice bonus though.” The laughter immediately drained from Shepard and she took a seat on one of the many crates around the workbench.

“So,” James said taking a seat on the crate beside her, “was it really that bad?”

“Was what that bad?”

“Don’t play with me Lola. You know damn well what I’m talking about. We’ve gone through this every other day since Kaidan came back.” James and Kaidan’s talks were always shorter because, to those he trusted, he was an open book. It was a bit harder to get through to Shepard. James always had to do a bit of poking and prodding before the dam broke.

“I don’t wanna talk about it.”

“You and I both know that’s a lie.” James said, looking Shepard in the eye. “If you really didn’t want to talk about this, you never would have come down here. Hell, you never would have brought it up in the first place. We both know that when you _really_ don’t wanna talk about something, nothing in this universe will make you open up. I also know that the way you’re chewing on your bottom lip means you’re thinking really hard, probably too hard, about something. That’s something both you and Kaidan have in common.”

“Kaidan doesn’t bite his lip.” Shepard said, confused by what he meant and astonished that he knew so much about her. They’d gotten very close during her six months on Earth and had stayed close on the Normandy. She took him on almost all of her ground missions and spent a lot of her downtime reviewing weapon and armor mods with him and Cortez. It still surprised her that he noticed such little things about her.

“No, I meant you both overthink things. Both you and Kaidan spend way too much time in your own heads, talking yourself out of great ideas.” James spoke softly to her, never breaking eye contact. He knew he’d gotten through to her when the the tension released from her shoulders and she stopped biting her bottom lip. “Háblame María, por favor.”

“Fine! Tú ganas. I’ll talk.” Maria sighed heavily and then quickly stood. She soon began to pace the length of the workspace as James watched her quietly. He knew if he interrupted her at this point she’d clam back up and never speak a word again, so he just let her pace. After a minute of silence, she leaned against the workbench and stared at her clasped hands as she began to talk.

“I miss him so bad it hurts. He’s right there, just an elevator ride away but he’s still so fucking far away. Every time I see him, I’m reminded of everything I lost when the first Normandy went down. Kaidan was my rock on that first run. I had commanded a few squads before, but that’s nothing compared to having your own ship. I had no idea what the hell I was doing but Kaidan was always there to help me. Pressley was my XO, but Kaidan was the one I really trusted. He kept me focused, kept me grounded. I never would have made it through without him. When the Normandy went down, I lost my best friend.”

“You love him.” James said quietly, ignoring the small ache in his chest as he said the words.

“I do. I didn’t realize how much until the air was leaking from my suit over Alchera. I wanted so bad to tell him on Horizon but I was just so damn angry. I was pissed at Anderson for not telling me Kaidan was there, pissed at The Illusive Man for setting us up, pissed at the Collectors for getting away with so many colonists, and I’d been pissed since waking up that so fucking many people had been violating my body, passing it around like a fucking trading card for years. When I saw him, standing there, I was reminded of all of that and I just saw red. We never fought like that before. It was so bad.” Shepard shivered at the thought of it. She was still deeply ashamed of the things she’d said to Kaidan on Horizon. She was fully aware she used him as a vent for her anger and she hated herself for it.

“Was it worse than the fights you have now?” James asked while moving to stand by her side. He’d guessed that their initial reunion hadn’t been a happy one, but she’d never gone into so much detail before.

“So much worse. We were both so horrible.” Shepard sighed and leaned into James’ side. He immediately wrapped an arm around her. “He apologized though. Sent me a voice message. Oh god, it was so him. His slightly raspy voice softly explaining why he said what he did and telling me why he was sorry. This sounds so pathetic, but I listened to it every night up until the end of the mission. All the electronics were shot to hell after taking out the Collectors and I wasn’t allowed access to any of my accounts on Earth, so I haven’t heard it since then.”

“That doesn’t sound pathetic at all,” said James, giving Shepard a small squeeze. “It sounds like someone desperately missing a person they loved.”

“Well when you put it that way I don’t sound pathetic at all, just really fucking sappy.”

“You’re getting soft in your old age Lola.” James said with a laugh. That earned him a hard elbow to the side.

“Fuck you, you baby krogan.” Shepard said laughing with him. She was grateful he saw fit to lighten the mood with a joke. Things were getting a bit too emotional for her liking.

“You still love me though.”

“More than you think.” Shepard mumbled under her breath.

“What was that?” James asked. He knew she said something but he didn’t quite catch her words.

“Nothing.” Shepard replied quickly, blushing deeply.

“Uh huh. Sure.” James didn’t miss the beautiful blush that crept slowly across the smooth brown skin of her face and neck. He decided to address whatever she said later, she was embarrassed enough as it was. “Why don’t you just tell Kaidan what you told me? I’m sure he’d understand.”

“I’ve tried to!” Shepard moved from James’ side to sit back down on one of the crates. James leaned against the workbench with his arms across his chest, watching her as she moved. “I try to tell him how I feel but then I think about everything that happened and how Cerberus screwed me over and I get pissed all over again. The next thing I know I’m screaming and he’s screaming and-- UGH!”

“There has got to be a way for both of you to sit down and talk like the adults you both claim to be.” James was getting seriously frustrated with the Commander and Major. They were both ridiculously smart and articulate when it came to tech, weapons, battle plans, diplomacy, and biotics, but when it came to their friendship all that intelligence amounted to nothing. They had been together since the very beginning and it was easy for anyone to see they meant the world to one another. “You both have no problem talking to me. I don’t get why you can’t talk to each other.”

“You’re so easy to talk to. I feel like I can tell you anything and you won’t judge me. You listen when I need it and offer advice when I want it. You know when to push me and when to just let me be. Best of all, you always find a way to make me laugh and forget whatever was bothering me. If you’re the same way with Kaidan, I can understand why he loves talking to you too.” Shepard was quiet as she watched James process her words. She took the time to think about how she felt about the two men who had dominated her thoughts for months.

There was no doubt in her mind that she loved both James and Kaidan. The question was, how did she love them? She cared about each and every person on the Normandy. Their lives depended on each other, so it was only natural that a connection would develop. She loved the people in her ground crew like they were her family. Many of them had been with her since the SR-1, so they had spent a lot of time getting to know one another. Even the newer faces had grown on her partly because she spent so much time either on missions or preparing for them.

Kaidan and James were a different story. When they were on better terms, she could spend hours talking to Kaidan about any number of subjects. He was one of the only people who could convince her to slow down when she was pushing herself too hard. He would do little things like keep an extra energy bar to give to her when she overworked her biotics, he knew how much milk and sugar she liked in her tea, and he knew which tea to give her when she had a headache. He knew when she wanted to talk and when she just didn’t want to be alone. He was her rock, her shelter in the storm that was her life, and she missed him so much.

With James, the emotion was different and yet the same. She had so much fun with him. James was able to bring out the silly side in her. Whether it’s jokes, “stealth training,” or a food fight (again, don’t ask), he always finds a way to make her smile. The other thing she loves about him is his huge heart. She loves hearing him talk of his family because the love he feels for them is on full display. Watching his face light up as he tells a funny story from his childhood is one of her favorite pastimes. Also, like Kaidan, he was always watching out for her. On Earth, he always made sure she never skipped a meal and did what he could to keep her from stressing out too much. On the Normandy, he’s the only other person who can get her to sit down and relax for a bit. She had no idea where she would be without him, without both of them, there with her.

“I think I have an idea,” said James after a few minutes of silence. “I need you to do something for me first though.”

“What is it?” Shepard said.

“I need you to promise that you won’t fight with Kaidan anymore, at least not for the next few days.”

“What exactly are you planning James?”

“Nothing yet,” said James as he took a seat across from her. “I need you to trust me on this. Everything will turn out fine.”

“OK. I trust you completely.”

“Good. Now it’s getting late and we both have an early day tomorrow. Get to bed Lola.” James said with mock seriousness. Shepard simply rolled her eyes and stood.

“Yes papi,” said Shepard sarcastically. “I’ll get right on that.”

“Oooh, you know I love it when you call me papi!” James said blowing her a kiss. Shepard laugh lasted all the way to the elevator and her smile didn’t fade until she went to sleep that night.


	3. Putting A Plan Together

Avoiding Kaidan wasn’t the easiest thing in the world for Shepard to do. The nature of their jobs dictated that they still had to talk. Being the second highest ranking person on the Normandy and a fellow Spectre, Shepard had made Kaidan her XO as soon as he came back. Personal feelings aside, he was still and would always be one of the people she trusted most when it came to battle plans, crew assignments, and dealing with Alliance red tape. As the war raged on, they had more paperwork and missions to deal with than ever before, which meant they had to talk. A lot.

Through some stroke of luck, Shepard and Kaidan were able to stay out of each other’s hair for the next few days. Having James around as a mediator of sorts definitely helped. Shepard had taken up the role as his N7 trainer with great enthusiasm and dragged him along to every single planning meeting. While James wasn’t particularly thrilled with the new level of reports he had to fill out, he didn’t mind that he got to spend a lot more time with both Kaidan and Shepard. Learning from two of the best soldiers the Alliance had and the only two human Spectres was an opportunity one did not pass up.

Being with them in meetings also meant that he was able to steer conversations toward safer waters whenever they were about to get into anything personal. He found himself redirecitng conversations so often that a plan for getting those two to really talk began to take shape.

“¡Oye Esteban! I need you to do me a big favor man.” James said bounding through the elevator doors. Steve knew something had him very excited because he was doing his “happy James bounce.”

“What exactly do you have planned Mr Vega?” Steve asked, leaning against the requisition bench.

“Something that will, hopefully, stop Blue and Lola from fighting for good,” he said, never stopping his slight bounce. He was quite proud of his plan. Everything was in place, all he had to do was get Steve to agree to help and then he could put everything in motion. “Are you gonna help me or not?”

“Alright, what do you need?”

“All I need you to do is make sure everybody is out of the bay at 2200 tomorrow.”

“That’s it?” Steve asked, raising his eyebrow in suspicion.

“Yep. That’s it. I’ve already taken care of the rest.”

“Alright then man, you’ll have yourself an empty bay. Well, on one condition.”

“What’s that?” It was now James’s turn to raise his eyebrow in suspicion.

“You have gotta tell me how your little ‘plan’ turned out after you’re done.”

“Deal.” James said with a smile. He knew his master plan had the chance to backfire, but he doubted it would. Yes, they would be mad at him for a bit but he knew that they knew they desperately needed this kick in the ass if they really wanted to get past all of the bullshit. His plan just had to work. If it didn’t, well, he was fresh out of ideas.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter took quite a while to get out and I apologize about that. Life got in the way for a bit. It's also shorter than the other chapters, but I'm on a bit of a roll so the next one shouldn't be too far off.


End file.
